The Arts and Humanities Research Council in Great Britain is using taxpayer dollars to fund research to assess whether milk has a “political nature.”
Academics at the History of Science Museum in Oxford received funding for the endeavor, titled, “Milking it: colonialism, heritage & everyday engagement with dairy,” according to a report from The Telegraph.
The figures for the grant have not been released.
Those involved with the project said the research will reveal the “colonial legacies” of dairy. The museum said in a statement that “by focusing on communities intersecting industry, aid and government regulation, the project aims to centre on heritage as a vital framework for understanding how colonial legacies influence contemporary issues and affect people’s lives.”
The project will “investigate historical engagement with milk, building networks with consumers and producers in Britain and Kenya,” the museum explained, adding, “The project will question both the imagined and real aspects of milk, revealing the intimate and political nature of this everyday substance.”
The goal of the research is to “develop new methodologies for investigating our relationship with milk,” the statement noted.
Associate Professor at the University College London’s Insitute of Archaeology, Dr. Johanna Zetterstrom-Sharp, said the research topic has been a “long five-year obsession.”
“Milk is a fascinating lens for exploring everyday colonial processes and power, from enclosing land to conceptions of hygiene, motherhood and health,” Zetterstrom-Sharp continued.
The “colonialism” research comes as academic institutions have pushed for “decolonization,” according to scholars.
Where Oxford is studying milk, Cambridge University Press changed the name of its journal from Anglo-Saxon England to Early Medieval England and its Neighbors.
Wanjiru Njoya of Mises Institute believes the title change is part of a “wider ‘decolonize the curriculum’ movement.”
“All universities in the UK and across the West are decolonizing the curriculum,” Njoya said. “This movement began in America some years ago and spread out from there. As you may know, it’s not just medieval history or the classics affected, but all fields of study, including the natural sciences.”
